Not the Day I Expected

When I went to bed Tuesday night, the temperature was 40 degrees. The most exciting thing that I was "expecting" to do on Wednesday after the kids went to school and the hubby went to work was to attempt to catch up on my laundry (is it ever really caught up)??!?! Anyways, instead, Wednesday morning at about 5:45 a.m. the phone started ringing. My first thought was that there was a family emergency. Instead, it was an automated message from Dominic's school saying it was cancelled for the day. I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. At 6:15 a.m., the phone rang again. This time it was Lauren's school leaving an automated message that they were closed too. I rolled over and did fall back asleep until about 7:30 a.m. when Dominic came barreling down the hallway from his room. Since the temperature was so warm Tuuesday night, I figured there must be ice on the roads. Well, when I looked at the window, it wasn't ice, but snow!

Okay, I was a little shocked, because the day before I had gotten Dominic off his bus not even wearing a coat! The poor hubby was outside shoveling the snow and when he came in the entire back of his coat was wet and he left a trail of water from the mud room into the kitchen. I let him take my van to work, since I assumed I would be in the house all day. Well, once I got Dominic some breakfast, I tested out a new recipe I found in an old cookbook for my food blog - peanut butter biscuits! Which, by the way are yummy with grape jelly or honey :)

Even though Dominic got up close to his normal time, Lauren got some well deserved extra sleep. I let Dominic watch one video and then he and I (and Lauren when she woke up) all read some books. When it came time for lunch, I told Lauren if she made us pizza, I would make her a smoothie of her choice later.

Wow, it was super yummy and there was barely any left over! I then cleaned up the kitchen and prepared a roast with potatoes and carrots for the crock pot for dinner. Dominic wanted to play with his Legos and Lauren and I played a game of Monopoly. Lauren royally beat me (I tried a new strategy that clearly DIDN'T work) and our game was over in less than an hour and a half. Since it had snowed a bunch after the hubby went to work, I told the kids we needed to clean the driveway and sidewalks. The kids played together for a while.

Yes, Dominic is sitting in front of Lauren on the sled -

Then it was time to put them to work:

When we came in, Lauren said, "so, when are you making that smoothie?" I pulled out the blender (by this time, the crock pot was going hard and our dinner was smelling amazing) and whipped up a smoothie for Lauren and put some in the fridge for later.

Since the hubby wasn't home from work yet, the kids decided to play a game of Twister. As soon as he rolled in, it was time to eat - finally - I was hungry! When we sat down to eat he said, "this is one of my favorite meals!" Cool. There were no leftovers :) He then said, "did you have any of that smoothie left over?" I told him yes and again, no leftovers! We watched the show Jeopardy (it's a family favorite) and then it was a bath for Dominic, homework for Lauren and more work for the hubby. After the kids fell asleep, I plopped down in front of the television and watched CSI (one of my favorite shows). Well, I did manage to get a few loads of laundry done throughout the day, but it was by no means the most exciting thing I did!! It's good once in a while to have a day that doesn't end up being what you expected. Isn't that what keeps life interesting??

Those "Steps" to Independence Can Be Hard

We are heading towards 600 orders for Dominic's business. Since our long-term goal for Baked Goods By Dominic is having a "brick-and-mortar" and hire those with disabilities, it is essential and imperative that I continue to teach him all parts of the business. Since I prompted Dominic for so many years for speech, he has become "prompt dependent." What that essentially means is that he will look at me for a prompt, like, "what do you do next?" I do that one a lot. Dominic has been going to a private speech therapist for over ten years and she reminds me often that Dominic usually will know the answer, if I am patient and wait for him. That has been a very hard habit to break! Dominic has an incredible memory, so I put it to the test this morning. I didn't write out the steps, I wanted to see how much he could do completely on his own. We have a customer picking up his order today, but the only thing that had been done is putting the cookies into t...

Why We Pursued Guardianship of our Son with Autism

Last Thursday morning, my husband, Dominic and I went to our county's Probate Court and had Dominic's Guardianship Hearing. My husband and I are Co-Guardians, and we were granted "Partial Guardianship," which means Dominic can make some of his own decisions (future educational and vocational placement options, what to wear and how he wants to spend his free time), but my husband and I will make his medical, health care, legal, contractual and major financial decisions. The subject of Guardianship in the disability "world" has been and continues to be a controversial and divisive topic. I was a panelist for an Autism Conference this past summer and presented on what it's like to have a child with Autism. Towards the end of my presentation, I mentioned that Dominic had just turned 18 and that we were going through the Guardianship process. When the attendees could ask questions, the first person that went up to the microphone started telling me that I was...

Presume Competence

Since we have traveled outside of the United States since Dominic was very small, we have had to get him a Children's Passport every five years. Since his current one expires in February of 2024 and he is now 19, we had to apply for an Adult Passport. I don't know why my husband and I picked Dominic's first day of school and Michigan State University moving in their students, but the appointment was yesterady at 3 p.m. We had gathered all of the documents needed and then went into a special room in the East Lansing Post Office just for Passports. The three of us sat down and the clerk asked Dominic his age. He said, "19." Since we were also getting his picture taken for the Passport, he went into a separate room, where she took a picture of him and then let him look at it to make sure he liked it (it will be his picture for the next 10 years)! He said he did, so he sat back down with us. The clerk filled out a bit more of the paperwork and then she let Dominic s...

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